Department of Education Finds That Denver Public Schools’ Bathroom Policy Violated Title 9

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that Denver Public Schools violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and its implementing regulations. 

OCR concluded that the District’s policy allowing students to use facilities according to “gender identity” instead of biological sex violate Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination. 

The district had converted sex-separated multi-stall restrooms to ‘all-gender’ facilities.

This Title IX investigation started unden by the Trump Administration’s OCR. 

“Denver Public Schools violated Title IX and its implementing regulations by converting a sex-segregated restroom designated for girls in East High School to an ‘all-gender’ facility and by allowing students to use the high school’s intimate facilities on the basis of their ‘gender identity’ rather than their biological sex. As a result, the District is creating a hostile environment for its students by endangering their safety, privacy, and dignity while denying them access to equal educational activities and opportunities,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX.”

The OCR has offered the District an opportunity to voluntarily agree to the following within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action. 

• Convert and redesignate all multi-stall restrooms for use by both sexes in any District school back to sex-designated multi-stall restrooms;
• Rescind any policies or guidance which allow students to access intimate facilities based on ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex (including components of the “Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit”);
• Issue a memorandum to all District schools reiterating that schools must provide intimate facilities that protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of its students and are comparably accessible to each sex, and that Title IX compliance ensures female students may not be discriminated against in any education program or activity; and
• Adopt biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” in all policies and practices related to Title IX. 

On January 28, OCR started investigating into Denver Public Schools for allegedly violating Title IX and its implementing regulations by converting a female restroom into an all-gender restroom in its largest high school. 

The District sought to rectify its different treatment of female students by converting the boys’ restroom on the second floor into an “all gender” restroom, but this does not remedy its violation of Title IX because males can use sensitive female-only facilities. 

The school received several complaints, including from a female student who reported that when her friend used the restroom, “boys kept staring at her, looking her up and down, kind of taunting her.” The student further shared that she was “very uncomfortable” with boys “being together in the same bathroom as [girls],” stating “our privacy and our rights has [sic] just been taken away.” 

Although the District maintained it does not have a policy regarding the assignment of restrooms based on sex, OCR found a District online document linked to multiple school websites, the “Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit,” which stated that “transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students have the right to use facilities…that match their gender as consistently expressed at school.”

 These policies violate Title IX by allowing males to use sensitive female-only spaces (and vice versa). 

Title IX and its implementing regulations prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities receiving federal funding. 

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